Litigation by the Chinese lessee of Darwin Port is an attempt at stymying the Australian government’s stated aim of returning the facility to Australian control. The case started at the World Bank is no mere …
The Strategist on: "ASPI staff"
The lesson of Anthropic’s new Claude Mythos AI model, with potent hacking capabilities, is becoming clear: in the era of increasingly powerful AI, national security priorities will prevail. Countries like Australia can’t assume they’ll always …
Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are meeting in Beijing on May 14 and 15 for the first time in more than six months. It’s Trump’s first visit to China since 2017. The two leaders …
About A$17.4 billion of the Australian government’s promised A$53 billion increase in headline defence spending over the next 10 years remains uncertain. Of the uplift promised by the National Defence Strategy (NDS) a month ago …
Strategists in Canberra should factor in the plausible risk of Russian participation in a Western Pacific conflict, especially action by Russian submarines. Russia has modernised its Pacific submarines and has a clear reason for using …
Australia’s 2026 National Defence Strategy (NDS) and Integrated Investment Program (IIP) demonstrate a stronger commitment to cyber defence and capability. They reinforce that cyber for Defence is not just about securing networks but also about …
The Australian government’s decision to curtail the Inland Rail Project was politically brave. Governments rarely walk away from troubled megaprojects once billions have been spent and expectations have hardened. Yet the real issue sits well …
Strategic competition now extends far beyond military capability and economic strength. Liberal democracies therefore have a strategic interest in cultivating a confident civic patriotism that strengthens social cohesion, reinforces institutional legitimacy and supports national resilience. …
China’s pressure on Taiwan increasingly relies on vessels that aren’t warships. Instead, Beijing is deploying a maritime grey-zone fleet: a network of civilian and paramilitary vessels used to harass, intimidate and probe Taiwan while remaining …
AI is the most consequential technology we will ever create. The visit by Japan’s pro-industry Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to Australia this week was a chance to bind our efforts with those of a natural …
Historian and media commentator James Curran is wrong to suggest we should fear that closer defence ties with Japan could drag Australia into a conflict with China, as he argued in the Australian Financial Review …
I’ve just finished reading a fantasy novel written entirely by an AI. The Second Son of the House of Bells is the story of a young bellmaker whose keen musical ear makes him an agent of political …